When I think of the first Dogsland novel, I think of leading a long life in hiding, in fear, questioning everything, and wondering always when the cloud of dread will fall at last upon my head. Then, there is an encounter with someone like me, and the colors of the sky turn for a little while.

I think of beers that could be made in Dogsland, with ingredients they might have around.

In the south, we can’t grow white wheat very well. We do better with hard winter wheats, grown off-season. Barley is difficult, and would be expensive, and would probably be imported. Roasted grains would be useful, as well, to mask many of the difficulties that one would face fermenting warm, and warm fermenting yeasts would be necessary.

As the first of the trilogy, I think, as well, it’s an overwhelming thing, an experience like no other, and a strong introduction to a world that is dark, complex and dangerous, and unlike any other experience on the shelf.

So, here we go, with the brew of NEVER KNEW ANOTHER… Let’s say we call it

If you are a brew-in-a-bag brewer, like me, bring ye ol’ water (6 gallons) to warm in a very large kettle with crushed grains on hand, ready to be brewed. Other brewing systems will need to figure out their mash water separately, but it looks like 4.375 of the total water will be used in the mash, if my numbers look right. All-grain brewers should understand what I mean and be able to adjust to their systems.

Dough in at 112 degrees for fifteen minutes for a nice protein rest, and gently step the mash up to 149/150 for half an hour, and follow that with a mash at 158 for half an hour. From there, mash out at 168 and do whatever it is you do to get the spent grain out of the way of the wort. (I brew-in-a-bag, so I lift the bag out gently, and set it aside in a separate kettle with a colander in it to continue draining sweet wort. (The rice hulls will help brewers who collect vorlauf in their brewing rig to prevent a stuck mash with all that red wheat in the mash. You’ll know if you need it.)

After mashout, do a nice, long 90 minute boil, and add the 1/2 ounce of Pearle hops at 60 minutes for an estimated IBU around 18-19.

Cool the wort after the boil, down to a pitching temperature of 75 degrees.

Ferment warm, just over 80 degrees, to really get funky with that yeast. It will be clovey, but will contrast pretty well with the many fruit and candied notes from the dark crystals and dark munich malt. Also, do you think temperature control is even possible in a place like Dogsland? Do you think it is even possible to get the wort cooled down and held below 75 degrees for a full fermentation cycle?

Carbonate it relatively frothy with about 5 ounces of demerera sugar for extra oomph in the bottle, if you aren’t going to keg.

I don’t think so.

Lemme see if I got a picture of this bad boy floating around. I brewed it a few weeks back, and I’m drinking it know. If I don’t see one handy, I’ll post one up later.

Doesn’t look like I see one handy. I’ll snap a pic when I get home.[edit to add: Look, I got home and popped one open and took a picture!]